


Haunting Melody

by LittleLinor



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-26 22:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16689721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: “I’m going to get her back,” Masumi states out of the blue.





	Haunting Melody

**Author's Note:**

> This is so old and I wrote it at a time when the plot was still agonising on synchro. Anyway. Justice for Masumi (justice for every girl in this show)  
> (reposted from tumblr, originally for polyshipping day)

She tours LDS facilities as they wait for the meeting Akaba Reiji scheduled.

_Why did he wait so long?_  she wonders, tension seeping into her arm muscles.  _At this rate they would’ve gotten slaughtered._

There’s spirit in the students finally getting a taste of LDS’s new training methods, but it’s obvious from the start that none of them are ready for a battlefield.

Soldiers don’t relax their guard after they take a hit. This isn’t a game. Landing the first blow might be crucial depending on your kind of deck, but nothing but constant vigilance will see you through a fight.

Serena has never been good at teaching people. It’s not a skill isolation breeds, nor was it something her own teachers tried to develop in her.

She tries anyway. It’s better than waiting for yet another Akaba to deign make his move and summon her.

* * *

She’d thought the adults would be the easiest to teach. She was wrong. Most of them have their own reflexes too ingrained, and too many take one look at the short girl in shorts and see only a kid, especially now that she’s changed out of the outfit she’d worn at the aborted ceremony. Most importantly, they lack imagination. The scenarios in their heads are static, too easy to twist and knock out of rhythm.

Kids are easier. For all the younger ones are less aware of the gravity of the situation, they’re more adaptable, and it’s easy to get the attention part into them as a game, even a painful or frustrating one. One snap of fingers every time they lower their guard. It’s a gentler technique than the one she’s used to, but it works.

She was done trying to congratulate an enthusiastic child who’d lasted through her exercise (”I’m gonna learn and combine xyz and fusion, like Reiji,” he tells her, and she can’t make herself force a smile, but her nod seems to satisfy him) when a yell catches her attention from haflway across the hall.

A boy, probably around seventeen, falls on his ass as his lifepoints drop to the hundreds, and the girl opposite him grits out “do you think I’m done yet?” before calling out a skill to fuse her monster with another from her graveyard. Serena watches the boy’s eyes as the next attack comes, and knows he won’t be around for long.

The girl, though… She walks forward as the girl pulls out her deck, sighing and flipping her black hair backwards.

She’d been about to ask for her name when the girl’s eyes meet hers and widen, an expression of distress and hope badly concealed on her face.

“Yuzu–” She hardens. “No. You’re not…”

“You know Yuzu?”

The girl sighs, looks away angrily.

“Yeah. She’s my…” a moment’s hesitation, then: “…friend.”

Silence falls, the noises of other duels filling the space around them.

“… I see you use Fusion too,” Serena finally ventures. “Your fighting spirit was impressive. Better than most I’ve seen here.”

“I’m going to be in the first wave of new Lancers,” the girl states, daring her or anyone to disagree. “I have… a debt. Towards Yuzu. If I can’t leave with the vanguard, I want to be on the front lines after that.”

Serena almost winces.

“… what’s your name?”

“Masumi.”

“Would you duel me, Masumi? You’ll be able to see first-hand how much of a gap you still have to cross.” And before Masumi can glare at her, she adds: “so you know how to cross it faster.”

“… all right.”

* * *

The duel lasts longer than even Serena expected. Despite their aggressiveness, both of them are cautious enough to keep some matter of defense, and Masumi is adept at linking skills, forcing her on her toes.

Serena wins, in the end, but something tells her that had Masumi been as familiar with her deck as she was instead of trying out brand new cards, the outcome would have been more uncertain.

“That was impressive,” she says with a ghost of a smile.

“You fight like she did.”

She blinks.

“Yuzu,” Masumi explains. “You fight the same way as her.” She snorts. “Well, with fewer sparkles.”

“I  _had_  been wondering…” so maybe there was something to her ability to hold off Obelisk fighters, then.

“I’m going to get her back,” Masumi states out of the blue.

Serena blinks. The determination in Masumi’s face is that of a soldier, with something even deeper underneath.

“… I have no doubt you’ll make it into the first wave.” She holds Masumi’s gaze, and if she doesn’t smile, her face does harden in a way she hopes Masumi will understand. “But I will do everything in my power for her to come back before that is needed. I have a debt towards her too, after all.”


End file.
